The live-action Mortal Kombat reboot may have done a fine job in adapting the video game property for the silver screen, but by killing Kano, Mortal Kombat 2 has been robbed of several iconic franchise stories. Upon release, Mortal Kombat 2021 was widely praised and quickly earned a green light for a sequel. However, not every decision made by the film was ideal for the long-term success of the film series.
Mortal Kombat introduced a new lead character in Cole Young, whose inclusion was met with a mixed reception. Fighters who participated in the titular tournament weren't necessarily the best combatants Earth could offer either. Instead, they were chosen by a dragon's mark, which allowed them to travel between realms and unlock updated versions of their traditional video game powers. What didn't change between the games and the film was the mortality rate, and, perhaps owed in part to that loyal depiction of the franchise's violence, Mortal Kombat set records for HBO Max. Unfortunately, several key character deaths could soon lead to a greater divide between the established video game lore and what's depicted in the new series of films.
Thanks to the character's role in many quintessential Mortal Kombat plot threads, Kano's death at the hands of Sonya Blade will have the greatest impact on the upcoming Mortal Kombat 2 since those moments now must be abandoned or initiated by someone else entirely. In the video games, Kano helped facilitate the invasion of Earthrealm by Shao Kahn's Outworld forces. While magic was used to allow Shao Kahn to invade, the weapons supplied by Kano's Black Dragon organization put even the weakest of the Outworld invaders on par with Earth's military defenses. With Mortal Kombat 2 primed to exceed Annihilation's scale, this Outworld invasion narrative would be a natural fit. Without Kano acting as the face of the Black Dragon, however, it's unclear how this crucial point in Mortal Kombat history will unfold.
Of course, Kano's cooperation with Outworld wasn't limited to arms dealing. Mortal Kombat 2021 teased another of his accomplishments by showing a brief interaction between Kano and Shinnok's amulet. In the original games, that amulet is the key to freeing the evil god Shinnok and it also often serves as a power source for the sorcerer Quan-Chi. While it initially seemed that Mortal Kombat was foreshadowing Kano's eventual theft of the idol, his death now makes its acquisition unlikely. Without the amulet, Quan-Chi's potential role in Mortal Kombat 2 becomes unnecessarily muddled. The changes made to Kano's powers in the first film were already met with some resistance. In this way, changing too much about Quan-Chi or the circumstances around Shinnok's resurrection because of Kano's fatal encounter with Sonya could invite bigger problems for the sequel.
Theoretical villains aren't the only characters impacted by Kano's death either. It's almost certain that the storyline between the Lin Kuei and the Shirai Ryu clans will continue in Mortal Kombat 2 after Sub-Zero and Scorpion's positive character receptions. The next phase of that feud, according to the games' history, should be the introduction of the second Sub-Zero, Kuai Liang. While it's expected for Sub-Zero to change in Mortal Kombat 2, altering Kuai Liang before he's even made it to the screen may also be unavoidable now that Kano is absent. After all, the mercenary was responsible for giving the second Sub-Zero his visually distinctive eye scar. He used a cursed dagger known as the Kamidogu to inflict that wound and consequentially made Liang vulnerable to possession. The aftermath would eventually lead to Liang and Scorpion's eventual team-up in Mortal Kombat 11. However, removing Kano, the dagger, and Liang's scar completely changes the trajectory of the younger Sub-Zero's story.
While Kano's presence may have felt inconsequential by the end of the 2021 adaptation, the character's impact on the original video games made him invaluable for the franchise's future. With the mercenary removed from the live-action reboots, major plot threads from the video game canon look to have already unraveled ahead of Mortal Kombat 2's release.